“Barnabas, The Great Over-looker”


BIBLE READING: Acts 7-11

                Imagine their disbelief…after all you can’t blame them.  A known persecutor of believers has now been baptized for the remission of his sins and now wants to join the Apostles?  Acts 10.26 tells us that when Saul attempted to join the disciples, they were afraid of him.  Although God had a plan for him to join them, they had not been informed by Him just yet.  Therefore, there needed to be someone who could bridge the gap between the Apostles and Saul and that is where Barnabas comes into the picture.  The Disciples had been well acquainted with Barnabas ever since he was willing to sell some land and give the money to the church.  They must have been very impressed with him and saw that he was sent to them by God due to his name meaning “son of Encouragement”.  Who better of a choice to bridge the gap between the two groups, but how did Baranabas get so supportive of Saul?  The answer to that question we may never know, but what we might be able to assume is that Barnabas had a unique ability to overlook a person’s faults and focus on the person’s future.  I will have to admit, that is a very difficult thing to put into practice when we consider the track record of human beings.  Yet, on the flip side, is that not what we expect Jesus to do to us?  Maybe that is a trait that we should be seeking to achieve, to look beyond others’ failures to the possibility of their future.


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